Nitpicks and Hindsight: RWBY Edition
by Another Guest1029
Summary: A little series I'm trying to start across multiple fandoms where I critique some ideas from the show and present my own ideas that anyone reading can use in their own stories. Enjoy or hate my opinions freely.
1. Special Little Snowflake

**A/N: So, this is the first in a little series I want to start across fandoms where I just nitpick stuff while using hindsight and write a little about my own ideas or whatever. This is mostly to just get my creative juices flowing, keep myself from being lazy. This is still part of my beginning work so when you review … make sure to absolutely destroy me in the reviews! I'll grow best under hardship not coddling.**

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Nitpick #1: Special Little Snowflake

So, the Schnee family semblance … someone was huffing something in Rooster Teeth when they made this thing. It breaks the rule of only having one power as a semblance (but with M&K's track record that probably won't be the last) and the writers just seem to willingly throw whatever power they want at these glyphs.

I mean for god's sake, there's a fucking time manipulation glyph and a necromancy-summon-the-dead glyph! OH GEEZ, THOSE TWO SURE DO FIT TOGETHER!

And I already hear what some of you are saying, that she has different powers because she uses dust. Okay, I've heard that theory, seen the visual evidence that she's probably using lightning dust to turn her glyphs into time-dilatating glyphs. But let me ask you, how the hell do you get time manipulation out of lightning and magic scribbles that you can either walk on or make things move faster? Because I couldn't think of any good reason.

Not to mention it's an inheritable semblance, which no one in the show brings up and was probably forgotten about by the writers. What are the rules of inheritable semblances? Do they cause family members to have similar personalities? Can radically different members of these families have problems using them?

Who knows?

Still on the topic of the Schnee semblance, it's pretty much a big metaphor for how Weiss is privileged from birth, down to her literal soul. She easily has the most versatile and arguably powerful semblance on Remnant, giving her all kinds of control over the battle with her motion controlling glyphs and being able to literally summon Stand versions of anything she's ever killed.

Does that include people? I really want to know.

Where was I? Oh yeah, the metaphor. So, from the snowflake design of the glyphs, being a kekkei genkai, and belonging to the richest people on Remnant, you can clearly see how I came up with the name of this chapter. I'd like to say that it was clever writing on someone's part to make Weiss' very soul-manifestation a sign of her privileged background and how it's a part of her, but since no one has brought up her semblance much with her character development like I have, I'm more inclined to think it was a fluke.

But when they do link Weiss' semblance with her character growth it's with the most out of place power in her power bag, the summoning. Which, let me remind you, she literally becomes so overdependent on that she forgets how to fight without it by the end of volume 5. That's why Vernal kicks her ass so hard in that fight, if a video game enemy won't stop charging up for a big attack you punish them for it.

I've heard people say that Vernal is Weiss' worst match up, GTFO! That's only true because anyone smart in Volume 5 is more overpowered than Saitama, and intelligence is fleeting in that volume.

Finally, I have to wonder what the hell kind of guy the first Schnee was. Because if a semblance is a manifestation of your personality – shut the fuck up Ren – then was the first Schnee such a Gary Stu that he just manifested the semblance that let him do anything? I can already imagine how the canon would make it look:

"How's it going Scrooge McSchnee?"

"Pretty good, Bob. I unlocked my semblance today!"

"Really? Cool! What's it do?"

"I create these sigils that I can put anywhere and walk on, also they give me telekinetic control over things. I can also put dust into them for perfect dust control and can also manipulate time by using lightning dust. Plus, it lets me create ghost copies of whatever I've killed for my own private army; I can even control their size! And, I don't know how, but I can already tell that any descendants of mine are going to have the exact same powers I have."

"…Dude, you got to give up on those mines of yours. The dust is fucking with your head."

They're called glyphs not sigils, my bad, but who gives a fuck?

But you know what I really want to see? I want to see Weiss summoning that ghost Grimm that possess stuff (a geist?) and using them to possess objects ranging from cars to computers. Some real Danny Phantom shit.

Anyway, that's about all I have for the nitpicking part, now for the hindsight part where I say what I would do with the Schnee semblance.

So, if the show is going to make Weiss' semblance a big, blatant metaphor for Schnee privilege than I might as well do something to make it unique. I literally remember pondering this in a college lecture of mine when I came up with the idea that the Schnee family semblance shouldn't be glyphs, but 'inheritance'.

The first Schnee would be a man who seemingly never unlocked his semblance but was strong and skilled enough to make a name for himself. His child would go on to have a semblance that would involve glyphs that you could walk on, but the grandchild also unlocked those glyphs with the added ability of manipulating the velocity of whatever is on them.

That's when the family would realize that the OG Schnee had a semblance that was not only inherited, but collected the semblances of the past generations too, each semblance manifested as a different glyph. The ghost one would probably have been a weird fellow, but his/her semblance is still stupidly useful.

That's basically the abridged version of my background for the Schnee semblance, and yeah, it's basically a copy of One for All only even more special, but I'm trying to fix it while still following the accepted rules of the show.

I say 'accepted' because, well, volume 5 …

Part of the reason I put this idea of how I'd like the Schnee semblance to work is because I hope other people take the idea and use it in interesting ways within their own stories. What semblance does Weiss contribute? Is she struggling to find her own semblance/identity outside of the Schnee semblance/name? What other powers could her ancestors have left her?

There's a lot of potential in it, more than I can bring out alone.

That wraps up what I have to say about the Special Little Snowflake semblance, next time I'll talk about my personal favorite semblance, Ren's! Until then leave any of the following: review, fav, alert, criticism, flame, personal attack, or nothing.

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 **A/N: Tell me if I screwed up any grammar or spelling, I'm always looking to improve that stuff.**


	2. Who needs Silver Eyes?

**A/N: Two updates in a single day, hours from each other! I'm a fanfic writer, I don't think I'm supposed to do this … I feel a disturbance in the Force!**

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Nitpick #2: Who needs Silver Eyes … I mean besides having something to ignore?

The future members of Teams RWBY and JNPR were in quite a pickle. Standing in front of them in the clearing was a massive Deathstalker, armor thick enough to shrug off their most powerful attacks. And above them circled a Nevermore, the perfect example of death from above, out of reach of any conventional attack and with a hide almost as thick as the Deathstalker.

Staying in the clearing was a death sentence, they were in the perfect spot for the Nevermore to launch barrage after barrage of giant, pointy feathers at them while the Deathstalker could harass them without any fear from said barrages.

The only real decision, the one Jaune and Ruby had already thought of, was to flee into the woods for a better battle ground. The trees would provide cover while-

"Ren! Do the thing!"

"Alright, Nora."

Before anyone could act on the previous common sense of running, Ren crouched down and placed both of his hands on the ground, his palms pointed towards Nora as she ran towards the Deathstalker.

Again, before anyone could do the smart thing – which was telling Nora to run _away_ from the Deathstalker – they were stopped by surprise, surprise of the shimmering field of Aura that surrounded Ren and the other field around Nora, which turned her … gray?

With Aura powering her legs, Nora was in front of the Deathstalker within seconds and the Deathstalker did … nothing. It didn't notice Nora at all, it just continued to stare at the other students as Nora shoved her grenade launcher into the Grimm's mouth and fired off all of her time-delayed grenades.

Once again, it only took Nora seconds to run back to the group, and only a few seconds for the grenades inside of the Grimm to go off and kill it. It was almost comical, how all of its eyes exploded and the sockets oozed with gore like a fire hose.

…

…

…

"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT/ **SQUAWK!?** "

Beginning Volume 1 Weiss and the Nevermore sounded indistinguishable from each other, so none of the kids could tell just how confused the Nevermore was. The orange haired human disappeared and then its fellow Grimm died and then the human reappeared! WHAT JUST HAPPENED!?

"Yeah, Ren can make people invisible to Grimm! It's super awesome!"

"I actually dampen and hide emotions. But yes, I essentially turn people invisible to Grimm."

…

…

…

"Do you even need to go to this school?"

"THAT'S WHAT I SAID! But Ren and Oz kept saying stupid stuff about licenses and logistics and blah blah blah."

Needless to say, the ensuing fight with the Nevermore was a joke.

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"Well, I suppose that's one student who won't complain about sparring classes not teaching them anything about the Grimm."

"The council's going to have that boy breed with every female in Vale in the hopes of a family semblance, aren't they Oz?"

…Sip.

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"Hey, Ren, can I ask some questions about your semblance?"

"I'm not going to use it so you can remain calm during exams."

"…I have one question about your semblance."

Ren looked towards his fearless – pfft – leader and waited for Jaune to continue. Jaune didn't say anything for a few moments, waiting for Ren to give some kind of conformation that he could ask his question.

Keep in mind, Jaune's only known Ren for a few days, he still hasn't realized that Ren has a case of silent protagonist.

After a minute of being unnerved by Ren's stoic staring, he finally asked, "W-well, I was thinking … your semblance is awfully useful, shouldn't you keep it secret, like, an ace up your sleeve kind of thing?"

"…What's the point in that?"

"Huh?"

"The Grimm don't talk to each other, so keeping secrets from them is kind of pointless. Not to mention my semblance can't do anything to other hunters or criminals unless they have emotion-based powers. Even if people got it in their heads that my calming aura was some mind control effect, it's also very draining, so they don't have anything to really be scared of. To sum it up, it's pretty pointless to keep my semblance a secret."

"O-oh yeah … I guess that was a dumb question."

"It's fine."

…

"So, what kind of semblance do you think a person would keep secret?"

"I don't know. Something ridiculous like being able to control other people's weapons or something."

"ACHOOO!"

"You okay Pyrrha?"

"Yes, I'm fine."

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"Now that I have all of the Relics there is nothing that you – Team RNJR – can do to stop me! SALEM! Hey, where'd they go?"

Shiiiiing!

"GAH!"

Salem's head rolled away from her lifeless body, stopping next to the window so that she could view the Grimm pits that probably should have spawned more Grimm. Might still be alive if they did.

She never saw Team RNJR turn back to their normal color hues, or Ren cleaning the Grimm blood from his dagger-gun thingies.

Ruby pulled out her scroll and dialed a number, the call was received in an instant.

"UNCLE QROW! WE STOPPED SALEM AND SAVED THE WORLD!"

"Did you use your Silver Eyes?"

"My what now?"

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So what did you guys think about this different format? Would you prefer little comedic stories first, or do you occasionally want just rant only chapters? Let me know in the reviews.

I remember the day that Ren's semblance was revealed on the show, and it was genuinely when I was the most ecstatic about something during all of volume 4. I was nerding out, just gushing in my head about his semblance.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't really care much about Ren, I forget he exists more than any other character in the show. Besides one of the team CRDL members, Ruby's mom, Oobleck, Penny – I remember Penny's teammate Ciel more, but mostly because I think Ciel looks fucking hot. I want to see her in a blue colored, military officer's outfit sooooo bad.

Ahem, anyway, I don't really care about Ren – being too quiet for his own good, then not in Vol. 5 – I just love, LOVE the idea of his semblance in the world of Remnant, or the idea of Remnant we were first presented with.

It's my favorite because it's hands down the best semblance any _Hunter_ , a specialized killer of Grimm, could ever ask for. Yes, it's trash in tournaments and against other people, like I said in the story, but in a world of Grimm this semblance is the holy grail.

I want to see people's reactions to this semblance, I want to see them chomping at the bit to get Ren super trained to kill big Grimm, I want people to see Ren as a resource. Imagine if you lived on a planet infested with Zerg and you had super bug spray powers, you would be the most important person on the planet.

I am just helplessly fascinated with the concept of Ren's semblance. Unfortunately, the Hunters in this show rarely fight the Grimm, and when they do, the Grimm are just chump change. Remember in the beginning when Teams RWBY and JNPR had to fight together to kill a single Nevermore and Deathstalker … and then Coco, a second year, killed like ten of those with one sweep of her fucking _purse_?

My favorite semblance in this show is practically fucking useless, even more useless because of Ruby's Mystic eyes of Deus Ex Perception.

Ugh, whatever, next chapter will talk about my thoughts about the Faunus race as a whole and – fun fact – has nothing to do with the racism in this show, unless you think so, tell me in the next chapter's reviews.

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 **A/N: Hey … would you guys mind … telling me … if I use ellipses … too much. I've … caught myself … doing that … a lot.**


	3. THE CIRCLE OF LIIIIIIIFE!

**A/N: Just to be clear here … I am not a furry, mmmkay. Furries, furries are bad, mmmkay. Furries are bad, mmmkay. (Just kidding, I don't give a shit if you are, I don't even care if my porn has fur)**

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Nitpick #3: THE CIRCLE OF LIIIIIIIFE!

Life on the island of Menagerie was as peaceful and fun loving as ever. The tropical resort kingdom, as it had been jokingly called, brought in a number of tourists from all across Remnant.

There once was a concern about a crowded population, but they just solved it the same way that any other advanced civilization did, by building taller apartment buildings.

Besides, most of the blue-collar workers and their families lived in the deserts where most of the industrial centers were located. Salt water rusted factory machines pretty badly. Plus, desert-based Faunus have no trouble at all with the heat and dehydration – you ever seen a camel Faunus complain about the heat?

In fact, there wasn't a place on Remnant that Faunus kind couldn't inhabit, as long as there weren't any Grimm and they had the right species of animal in their genes. Arctic tundras, deserts, poisonous swamps, if something lives there then the Faunus can live there.

It was just one of the many reasons scientists believed that Faunus kind outperformed humans to extinction.

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"Mommy! Mommy! Can you read me a bed time story?"

The young snake-Faunus said to her goat-Faunus mother, her gorilla-Faunus father was already passed out on his bed after a long day of work.

How do the genetics behind that work? I don't know, magic, fuck you.

"Alright dear, one story and then off to bed."

"Yessss!"

The young snake child raced to her bed and practically threw herself under the covers. The mother giggled at the adorable sight, and then checked the small bookshelf for one of the many children stories the parents had bought for their daughter.

"Hmmm, how does … the _Tale of Humanity_ sound?"

"That one! That one!"

The mother sat on the rocking chair next to her daughter's bed, opening the book.

"Long ago, two races inhabited this world. Among them were the Faunus, a race blessed with the strengths of the creatures around them, but with the intelligence to use them to their full potential.

And sharing the world with them were the humans, a strange race that looked, walked, and talked just like the Faunus, but were not as one with the land around them as the Faunus were."

"What do humanssss look like, mommy?"

"Well, imagine me without my floppy ears, horns, my tail, and the fur on my arms and legs."

"… That'ssss sssso weird."

The mother laughed once again at her child's innocence, picking up where she left off right after.

"When these two races first met the Faunus were overjoyed with their new neighbors and wanted to share this world together. But the humans, a naturally fearful race, grew jealous and scared of the differences between them."

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"Hello brothers! We are the Faunus, and we– "

"HOLY SHIT! HE HAS A WOLF TAIL!"

"U-uh, yes, we have some differences, but–"

"WE SHOULD GO TO WAR WITH THESE FREAKS!"

"But the Grimm, war will only attract Grimm that want to kill everybody! Our kinds will be too weak to fight them!"

"THE SURVIVAL OF OUR SPECIES IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE SURVIVAL OF OUR SPECIES!"

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"And so, many horrible battles were started between the Faunus and the Humans. The humans that believed us no better than animals constantly underestimated the Faunus."

"But Faunussss are ssssmarter than animalssss, and we build sssstuff."

"The humans found that out the hard way, dear."

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On opposite sides of an open plain, two armies faced each other. One human and one Faunus.

The human general raised his sword and began his charge towards the enemy, a stampede of heavily armed humans with spears, swords, and bows ready to kill the Faunus like animals.

The Faunus army … just stood there, smirking.

Halfway across the battlefield the very ground beneath the human army collapsed, taking almost half of their forces below the dirt. The rear forces, consisting mostly of archers – which the author now realizes should have been shooting first before charging, but that's my B – stared dumbfounded as their frontal fighters were piled in a heap.

The general was more pissed than anyone, stuck underneath his now dead horse and trying to crawl out.

Then he heard it, a whistle from his left. He looked and grew ten times angrier in an instant. Sticking out of the wall of the mini-canyon was a mole-Faunus, waving an Earth-Dust crystal and sticking her tongue out at him. Before he could do anything, she pointed upwards and then literally _swam_ back into the wall.

The general looked up, and instead of turning an even deeper shade of red, he turned pale.

Above the toppled human army was a whole squadron of winged Faunus, half of whom were pelting the still standing humans with arrows just like their land-based brothers. The other half … the other half were dropping **a lot** of lightning and fire Dust crystals into the pit with the trapped and disarrayed humans. Dust crystals with fuses on them.

As the first Dust bombs hit the ground, the General only saw a blinding light and then knew nothing else.

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"The Faunus had already learned how to spread out and live in the most dangerous parts of Remnant. Not only did the harsh land protect the Faunus from Grimm but also from humans who couldn't survive in the deserts, oceans, forests, or even the air."

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"THEY'RE COMING FROM THE TREES!"

"FUCK THE TREES! THEY CAN FLY!"

"QUICK! RETREAT BACK TO THE BOATS! WE HAVE TO SAIL BACK HOME!"

"THEY ALREADY PIERCED THE HULLS! THEY CAN SWIM, TOO!"

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"Not to mention our shared trait of night vision."

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"Hey Florence, can you see anything?"

"It's too dark for me. What about you, Mark?"

…

"Mark?"

"Touch."

Florence dropped dead, overdosed by the deadly toxins of the poison-dart-frog-Faunus.

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"And we were just as smart as the humans, if not even more clever."

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"Hey guys!"

"What is it, Arachne?"

"You know the spider silk I make and use to capture humans?"

"Yeah?"

"Well me and Dave weaved it into a shirt for fun, and it turns out we can make armor out of it!"

"What?"

"Yeah! We tried cutting it and ripping it, but we got nothing. We finally had to call someone in who had Aura, and even he said he could only cut it if he reinforced both himself and his knife."

"That's amazing! We can use it as super lightweight armor! Imagine how strong it would be with Aura!"

"This is just like when Maui let us use his shark teeth for weapons. Thank whatever god decided to give a shark-Faunus regenerative Aura powers."

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"Eventually, the humans couldn't keep up with the loses of the war. The Faunus had no such problem … repopulating with all the rabbit-Faunus – Okay! Don't remember that part."

"Mom?"

"O-oh! It's uh, it's nothing honey. Anyway, the Humans soon surrendered and an uneasy peace was established between our two races.

Over the years, Faunus and Humans began to mingle and coexist more easily together, even finding love between the two species. But as it would turn out, children born between a Faunus and a Human are much, much more likely to become a Faunus.

Because of this, less and less humans were born every year, while the Faunus only increased in number. Soon enough, no more humans were born and only Faunus remained. If they hadn't lost so many humans to the fighting, then maybe they would have still been able to share this world with the Faunus."

The goat mom would have continued with her story, but she heard the hissing noises her daughter makes while she's sleeping. Tucking her in, the mother placed the book back on the shelf and turned the lights off.

The End.

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Believe it or not, I'm not going to give M&K too much grief over this, because a lot of authors seem to make this mistake. I remember watching a video a World of Warcraft player made and he said how, when he first started playing when he was nine, he thought the Dwarves were in charge of the Alliance. They live longer, they're more advanced, more militaristic, and have better weapons. It just made sense that the stronger looking Dwarves would be in charge instead of the – his words – generic and bland knights in armor.

And I've noticed that in other places, too. In fact, I'm pretty sure I've fallen victim to that way of thinking when I've daydreamed of a few space operas.

And what's the usual excuse in fantasy, that humans breed faster and are well rounded. Well, the Faunus are literally humans with the benefit of having animal traits that give them more natural super powers. They have all of our advantages, no weaknesses, and then more advantages that humans don't have.

And you can't bring up stuff like the humans of Atlas are more industrious, they developed their technology in response to the harsh environment. The Arctic Faunus don't have to waste time building stuff to be comfortable and can just attack. And what's stopping the Faunus from just deciding to ramp up their technological development, too? There's no intelligence difference between the races.

You can't even say that Aura or Semblances could make a difference, because both sides have it. The Faunus also have a lot of people who can fly, breath underwater, tunnel underground, and have universal night vision. They are a special force's wet dream.

So yes, in my mind, the humans of Remnant got stupidly lucky when they fought against the Faunus, or the Faunus were crippled by having too many Ghiras and Blakes back when they lived in tents. And too many Blakes will destroy any civilization.

But, even if M&K thought about this, came to this same conclusion, but went with the oppressed Faunus route anyway … I'd still be fine with it. If they really want to tell a story about racism that bad and have to stretch some stuff to do it then fine by me.

Problem is, you have to be good at telling that story to get away with it.

Also, Faunus should have more than just one animal trait, make the differences more obvious and thus difficult to overcome. Rather than just one animal part, some of which can be _hidden_ , to the point where _you literally can't tell the difference_. It kind of ruins the whole point of being racist against animal people when you can't tell the damn difference, especially when that difference is pathetically small to begin with.

To sum it all up, we need less Faunus and more Minks from One Piece.

Next chapter, Jacky Schnee can make life for the Faunus way worse than you can think. And it doesn't involve whips, work hazards, low wages, or Jim Crow laws. No, I think you'll be surprised.

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 **A/N: I've decided to go with this story thing first from now on, they're really fun to write.**


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